Two weeks ending 30MAY2021

Monday AM - 4 miles before the work day.  Super slow.  
PM - might be the wettest May I can remember in Colorado.  But that is good.  Another four miles.

Tuesday afternoon - 7 miles around practice

Wednesday - a meet so not much.  3 miles.  But an awesome meet.

Thursday - picked up a new set of Brooks.  Probably 3 months overdue on that.  Six miles at practice.  Felt good and it seemed I managed sub 8 for the run.  

Played the Rails Open mic Thursday night.  I was sorta the opener ... played "This Time Around" (Randy Rogers/CCR), "I Remember Everything" (John Prine), "Squeezebox" The Who, and "Green and Dumb" (RCPM).   I had different tunes for the last two (it was gonna be "Clay Pigeons" (Blaze Foley but covered later by Prine) and "Mr Wrong" (Hickman)) but I bailed on that idea mid way and read the crowd a bit to switch it up.  

I think it might be the first set that I pulled without any significant mistakes.  That is not to say I am beyond improvement - there is much I could improve - but there were no errors where I was kicking myself.   Pacing of tunes was good, I backed off the mic right, and didn't drop any chords.  It was good.  

Bolted to band practice pretty much after the mic.  Group has a gig on Saturday ... and I am gonna miss it.  But they are sounding great.

Friday - maybe 5 miles at practice.  

Saturday - day off.  Travel.  Really long travel to Hawaii.  

Sunday - 10.1 miles.  Not a great exercise week with only 40.

Monday 10.1 miles.  Pretty hot and humid.  Dumped in 6 x 2 min on, 2 min off to mix it up and do something.  First time in a while I have done anything like that.  It was ugly but a something.  

Tuesday - 7.4 miles.  It was pretty hot, no cloud cover, and I was feeling it in the last mile.

  

Wednesday - 10.1 miles.  I was pretty good on this one until the last 1.5, and then the heat and humidity got me pretty well.  It wasn't so bad in the run but I felt it for sure when I was done. 

Thursday AM - decided to back it off a bit and only did 6.3, and pretty slow.  It was a bit cooler so that helped.  I could feel that "heat shift" coming on just in the last half mile, so this was probably the smart choice this morning.  

Late afternoon - got out for another 3.7 along the shore.  Slow.  Hot.  Sticky.  So typical.  

Friday - mid morning.  Hot.  Ran up off the beach and up into some of the neighborhoods and back by the schools.  6 miles.

Saturday AM - 7 miles.  

I think I was having a good run of runs until about Wednesday and then I sorta popped with the heat.  After that, I was just tired all the time.  

Sunday - travel back all day.  Zero.

50 on the week on the six days.  

The trip was good.  I was pretty conscious of the fact that I could possibly never be back, and if I did return, it would be with a different crew.  Still, it took me quite a bit to unwind.  It started with on Sunday morning when I realized that I had left my laptop on the plane that flew us here.  Took me a good hunk of the day to unravel that and get it back.  

A few more pix.

Week ending 16MAY2021

Monday - rain again.  In fact some sleet and hail too.  Underdressed.  5.5 miles.  

Tuesday - 7 miles around practice

Wednesday -  7 miles around practice

Thursday - post the Lyons meet with the JVers.  7 miles.   Beautiful night.  

Friday - 8 and change around practice.  Did 10 x 100 strides to shift things up a bit.  

Saturday - 5.5 miles.  Track meet most of the day.  

Sunday - 10 miles.  Easy and felt pretty good.  Looks like the nesting eagles are back.

Backed off guitar a bit this week.  Left hand was unhappy about something, and guitar seemed to aggravate it.  

A very unpretty (in terms of how I got it) 50 mile week.  Guess I tripped over 900 miles on the year this week.  

Week ending 09MAY2021

Monday AM - started raining yesterday with some crazy hail for a bit, but then got bright for a bit.  But then started raining late afternoon again and hasn't stopped since.  Nice to get the free water.  Got out for a simple 3.5 miles in the morning before jumping on an all day engagement.

Tuesday AM - got out for an early 6.1, and then a track meet in the afternoon.  Might have got another couple running around there but I don't know.  It was the first track meet in over a year.  It felt good.

  

Wednesday ... 4.2 miles.  Cut short the run in the afternoon because I picked up a gig at the restaurant around the corner from us.  Did a couple of hours.  

I only got word this was a possibility on Tuesday so it was a little nuts for me to just take it on and swing it.  I felt it was a bit of a good test though, just to see what sort of command I had over a couple hours, and if I could bring that with some confidence.  Different vibe from a bar of course.  Way mellower crowd and probably not looking for me to be a blast your face off entertainer but more just some background cover music.  That is interesting unto itself.    

I am still learning still so much each time I do these ... technical stuff like how to distance or be up on the mic, but also a lot of other learnings come in to play.  There is a meditative like quality in playing in that I can begin to separate from myself and see how my mind is working, or frankly not, in a gig.  

Follow up on this:  I am guessing I was not quite what they were looking for.  I sent a thank you notes to the two staff I interacted with there, and asked if I could play again.  One no response, and one "we will keep you in mind."  So there is that.  

Thursday afternoon - 10.8, maybe a bit more.  Warm.  Just slow jogging.  Legs are completely unhappy but I am just enjoying the grind ride.

KZ got me hooked into Demon Slayer.  Did I say I am hooked?

Friday - 7 in the AM.  3.7 in the evening at the track meet.  Nice to be back under the lights at Broomfield for a Friday night track meet.

Saturday afternoon - sorta draggin .., 8 miles out and back behind the hospital.  Snake season is back.  

Sunday - 8.3 miles.  Beautiful morning.  

 

Just over 50 on the week again.   Not bad given the work obligations, the slow start and just the craptastic legs I felt most of the time.

Week ending 02MAY2021

Monday - day got away from me again with work, so I didn't get out until the afternoon.  It was the first official day of practice for track so that consumed quite a bit.  I didn't get much in - 3 miles.  That was probably fine because the Achilles was winning the arguments today.  

Tuesday AM - took a work call and did the ditch and back.  4.2 miles.  Getting cooler again.  
PM = raining at practice, but it was sorta nice.  6.3 miles super easy with a few of the klds.  

Wednesday - afternoon practice, 7 miles.  A bit sore for some reason but ok.  

Thursday - afternoon practice - 6 miles.  Yeah, practice impacts how much running I get in.

Friday - afternoon practice - 8 miles.  Caught up to the boys with a bit of effort (and they were not doing anything but slow jogging for them).  80 degrees so it felt like a bit of a cooker.  

Saturday - 8.2 miles, including some quality.  Kids had some threshold and then some faster paced stuff so I jumped into some of that to help out ... and reap a bit of benefit.  About 10 minutes at threshold and then a handful of 200s at slightly faster than mile pace.  

Sunday - I barely beat the storm.  Over the course of the run it went from a beautiful blue sky day to the Modor clouds rolling in from the west.  8.8 miles.

50 plus on the week, which seemed unlikely with the 3 mile start. Was happy that I managed to get a workout in on Saturday and was actually a little sore come Sunday.